Conquer the Flames (Langs Down)

A
RIEL
T
ACHNA

Contemporary M/M Romance at its Finest

Inherit the Sky

“…a well-crafted, beautiful book that I would recommend to anyone looking for a love story that takes courage.” —Guilty Indulgence

“I enjoyed this excellently researched and written book very much and hope there will be additional stories about all of the characters on and near the Lang Downs sheep station.” —Mrs. Condit

“This story is beautifully, realistically handled.” —Joyfully Jay

Her Two Dads

“…one of the most emotionally rewarding and uplifting love stories that I have read in a long time.” —Dark Diva Reviews

“This is one of the best books I have ever read.”

—Judging the Book by Its Pages

“…a sweet and stirring novel about the power of love and family.”

—Romance Junkies

Seducing C.C.

“…a great comfort read.” —Blackraven Reviews

“…a seductively sexy and romantic story.” —Night Owl Reviews

Once in a Lifetime

“… a coming-of-age story that introduces heart-pounding firsts and nostalgic lasts.” —¡Miraculous!

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

NOVELS BY ARIEL TACHNA

Château d’Eternité

Fallout

Her Two Dads

Inherit the Sky • Chase the Stars • Outlast the Night • Conquer the Flames

The Inventor’s Companion

The Matelot

Once in a Lifetime

Overdrive

Out of the Fire

Seducing C.C.

Stolen Moments

A Summer Place

T
HE
P
ARTNERSHIP
IN
B
LOOD
N
OVELS

Alliance in Blood • Covenant in Blood • Conflict in Blood • Reparation in Blood

Perilous Partnership

Reluctant Partnerships

Lycan Partnership

WITH
N
ICKI
B
ENNETT

Checkmate • All For One

Hot Cargo

Under the Skin

WITH
M
ADELEINE
U
RBAN

Sutcliffe Cove

NOVELLAS BY ARIEL TACHNA

Healing in His Wings

Rediscovery

Rose Among the Ruins

Why Nileas Loved the Sea

WITH
N
ICKI
B
ENNETT

Something About Harry

Tying the Knot

T
HE
E
XPLORING
L
IMITS
S
ERIES

A
VAILABLE
AT
D
REAMSPINNER
P
RESS

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Copyright

Published by

Dreamspinner Press

5032 Capital Circle SW
Suite 2, PMB# 279
Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886

USA

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Conquer the Flames

© 2013 Ariel Tachna.

Cover Art

© 2013 Anne Cain.

[email protected]

Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/.

ISBN: 978-1-62798-321-1

Digital ISBN: 978-1-62798-322-8

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

September 2013

To Janelle Taylor, who introduced me to romance when I was twelve and reminded me to write the story that calls to me most when we met in Kansas City this year.

One

F
IRE
licked over his skin, smoke choking him. He tried to flee, but he couldn’t make his arms and legs move. He gasped for breath, trying to reach the source of the screams he could hear. He knew those voices, had known them better than his own, but he couldn’t find them. He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. It burned. Oh, it burned.

With a muffled scream, Thorne brought himself out of the nightmare. He scrubbed his hands over his face, his short beard catching on his raw palms. Fuck, he hated fire. With everything the army had beaten out of and into him in his twenty years of service, they hadn’t been able to drive out his hatred of or fascination with fire.

He pushed open the flap of the tent he slept in, trying to decide if the light on the horizon was the dawn or the glow from the grassfires that had broken out all across the tablelands of New South Wales in the past month. He’d shipped out at the first reports, and he’d be here fighting for every inch of ground until the last fire was out or until the fire had taken him too. It would almost be a relief, but he wouldn’t give it the satisfaction.

He snorted at the personification, as if the flames making their way through the outback cared who or what stood in their way. Thorne cared, though, and he’d be damned if he’d let the grassfires win.

C
AINE
N
EIHEISEL
stared at the new report detailing acres burned, property damaged, and the reporter’s prognosis for the grassfires that raged north of the sheep station. He’d been lucky, he supposed, to have made it seven years at Lang Downs without a serious fire. They were careful every summer, of course, not wanting to risk starting a fire on the station itself, but always before, the winter and spring had been wet enough to carry them through the summer without any serious threat. This season, they weren’t so lucky.

“Staring at the telly won’t change anything.”

“I know.” Caine didn’t look up at the sound of Macklin’s voice. His lover and partner had been on the station for more than thirty years now. He was inured to whatever the outback threw at them. Caine wasn’t nearly as sanguine. “I’m tracking the progress, trying to decide if we should be worried.”

“We should always be worried when fires get out of control, but watching it on the telly isn’t the way to deal with it.”

“So what is?”

“We move the sheep down into the valley,” Macklin said, “and then we build firebreaks all the way around the rim. We’ll lose fences, maybe even the drovers’ huts, but we’ll protect the livestock and the station proper. Fences and huts can be replaced.”

“Okay,” Caine said, standing and reaching for his hat. “Let’s get busy.”

T
HORNE
shoveled dirt on the approaching flames, trying to smother them before they could reach the firebreak behind him, but the wind had picked up that afternoon, whipping the smoldering embers into determined flames that he couldn’t fight with dirt alone. He didn’t stop trying. He’d never given up a fight in his life; he wasn’t going to stop now. He took a step back as the heat became intolerable even with his protective gear. The flames might be winning, but Thorne would make them work for every inch of ground they devoured.

He ignored the shouts around him. Half of them or more were echoes of other battles, a different kind of firefight. They couldn’t be allowed to govern his actions in this fight. People were counting on him. He’d seen a building over the crest of the nearest hill as he’d gone out to meet the fires early that morning, and buildings meant people.

“Lachlan, fall back.”

Thorne nearly ignored the captain of the fire brigade, but while the army hadn’t driven out his visceral reaction to fire, it had driven into him obedience to the chain of command. He withdrew to the firebreak, scattering dirt behind him with a vengeance as he went. “Sir?”

“We’ll hold the break,” Captain Grant said. “I need you to head south to Lang Downs. If we lose this break, we’ll have to fall back onto their land. They need to know what they’re facing, and we need to know what kind of support we can count on from them.”

“Captain,” Thorne protested, “can’t someone else go? I’ll do far more good here than I will talking to some grazier whose only concern will be saving his own skin.”

“That’s why I need you to go,” the captain insisted. “If that’s his only concern, I’ll need your expertise to make sure the fire doesn’t take the whole place and beyond, and if he is willing to help, there’s no one better than you to make sure the station is as ready as it can be and the men there deployed to greatest effect.”

“I need to stay here,” Thorne said.

The captain shook his head. “You want to stay here, but you’re exhausted. You’ve been out here for weeks without a break. Everyone else has taken at least a day’s rest to wash up and get a real meal rather than rations.”

“I’m a Commando, sir,” Thorne reminded him. “A few weeks is nothing. We’re trained to survive months in the harshest conditions imaginable.”

“You
were
a Commando,” the captain replied. “You’re retired now, remember?”

“Once a Commando, always a Commando, sir,” Thorne said, hiding the flinch at the reminder of his current status. He hadn’t wanted to retire, but his superiors had taken him out of the field, and he couldn’t live with that either. Fighting fires wasn’t the same as fighting in East Timor, Afghanistan, or Iraq, but it was better than a desk job that would kill his soul no matter how it protected his body.

“Then obey your orders, soldier,” the captain said. “With the wind as high as it is, I don’t know how long we can hold this firebreak.”